GREATEST METAL ALBUM CUP - Winner: Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son!

There’s some Yngwie I like and I agree he has great tone. The smoothness of his playing on a single coil guitar is remarkable. I think he lacks in songwriting, even from an instrumental shred POV. The songs with vocals, while catchy, seem to serve primarily as a guitar showcase, which makes the presence of Soto (who is severely underused) questionable. I’m going to listen to both songs before voting, but that’s my reasoning going into this. I’ll take Malmsteen in Alcatrazz though.

Against weaker competition, Malmsteen might still have a chance. But the Blind Guardian album is a juggernaut. It’s an appropriate matchup, because I think BG is a similar brand of Metal, but it feels like more of a complete package rather than guitar + everything else.
 
Mosh said:
There’s some Yngwie I like and I agree he has great tone. The smoothness of his playing on a single coil guitar is remarkable. I think he lacks in songwriting, even from an instrumental shred POV. The songs with vocals, while catchy, seem to serve primarily as a guitar showcase, which makes the presence of Soto (who is severely underused) questionable. I’m going to listen to both songs before voting, but that’s my reasoning going into this. I’ll take Malmsteen in Alcatrazz though.

Against weaker competition, Malmsteen might still have a chance. But the Blind Guardian album is a juggernaut. It’s an appropriate matchup, because I think BG is a similar brand of Metal, but it feels like more of a complete package rather than guitar + everything else.
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One thing I just don't really enjoy anymore is how incredibly processed (& technique disguised) most Metal music is. I get there's other aspects to enjoy, besides guitars. But, well, drums are drums; and vocals pull bands/songs down for me, not elevate them. I sound like a tone-nerd here, but Malmsteen's ability to play so cleanly with that open, unforgiving tone (in terms of picking & fingering errors/missteps) puts him head & shoulders above most of the playing in this cup/survivor. And, as a guitar player, I find that more intersting to listen to than quite a lot of what's featured so far. Basically, I don't really seem to share the same tastes as the majority here, and regularly find little merit in bands peeps seem super stoked about. BG just doesn't interest me. FNM are inventive, funny, and entertaining. The rest no real opinion on.
 
I have two more nominees coming up in the next round, and both caught draws against classic big name bands, so here’s my plea to judge them purely on their relative merits.

First up is Def Leppard’s High ‘n’ Dry, the last of their rawer NWOBHM albums before they took a poppier turn and exploded in popularity. The sample song I chose was Mirror, Mirror, which is probably my favorite Def Leppard song in general. It’s got a melancholy feel with some nice dynamics, great hooks, and an exotic guitar interlude in the middle. Another killer track is Another Hit And Run, which is also melancholy, dynamic, and hits like a freight train when it wants to. Bringin’ On The Heartbreak is a great power ballad, and Lady Strange and On Through The Night are some other sweet tracks, though nearly everything on the album is great. I posted some detailed thoughts in the random album reviews thread for anyone who’s interested.

The Def Leppard album is up against Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti. I find the Zeppelin album to be bloated with filler outside of a few classic tracks, but this is apparently a minority opinion. I think that the Def Leppard album undeniably rocks harder, and actually qualifies as a NWOBHM album, which ought to help its chances with the metal purists — but I honestly think it’s a stronger album in general on the merits.

Next up is Powerwolf’s Lupus Dei. Unlike their sillier later albums that lean in more of a power metal direction, this album is gothic traditional metal with lots of pipe organ. Great vocals, great guitar work, and the album kicks ass through nearly its entire runtime. It’s my personal favorite album of the ‘00s. The sample song I chose was Saturday Satan, which is probably their very best song, and if you don’t love it you need to turn in your metal fan badge. Other choice cuts are Behind The Leathermask, When The Moon Shines Red, We Take It From The Living, Prayer In The Dark, and Tiger Of Sabrod, but again, it’s hard to go wrong with anything on this album. I also posted detailed thoughts on this one.

The Powerwolf album is up against the Rainbow debut. This is another case where I don’t really understand the unconditional love for the Rainbow album, which has some good tracks and other nice parts, but doesn’t exactly bring the house down. If you ignore the band pedigrees and compare these albums on musical merit alone, I honestly don’t see how you could conclude that Rainbow is a superior metal album to Lupus Dei — but I guess we’ll find out soon enough. All I ask is that you give the contenders fair consideration.
 
Lupus Dei is a great fucking album. I intend to listen to both and make my call. Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow is great too, but I agree that Powerwolf rocks harder. Gonna be close imo.
 
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Why is this Virgin Steele album still in the game? GTFO. One look at the cover art is enough to know it sucks.

Gojira - Thorns reminds me of 1349. I appreciate the sound it's going for but Gojira does the heavy aggressive thing much better.
Blaze Bayley - never paid attention to Blaze's solo career, but this song is really good.
Blind Guardian - Malmsteen's shredding never grabbed me much. Cried mentioned his tone and I agree, fast alternative picking on a mid-rangy single coil yields delicious sounds. However, the cheese of power metal barely won me over in this round.
Faith No More - I like some Motörhead but this FNM album offers more sonically. The funk and the production bring them the win.
 
Now we start with two records that really point how 21st century metal should be: inventive, outside the box and with a great standard of quality. Already gave my praises to Thorns' album: I think I was a bit too harsh regarding the absolute amazing work done on the split with Emperor but looking back one must come to the conclusion that, although not being as mind blowing as the aforementioned record, Thorns is still a great piece of Metal. On the other side of the ring we have Gojira that had already made their statement with their off the charts From Mars To Sirius and, although the following releases were some notches below, L'Enfant Sauvage really stands neck to neck when compared with such a seminal record. By now, Gojira's pack of influences and how they display it has reached its maximum and this record really portraits it.
Explosia truly explodes as his quasi Domination era Morbid Angel riffs are molded to Gojira's groove and peppered with the band's signature guitar bridge palming high pitch slides and licks. This thing is heavy, inventive and it's also a testimony to the band's composing skill how softly its transition is made to a Ennio Morricone Spaghetti Western like ambiance for the final stretch of the song. The title track is also intense while being way less inventive (lots of "more linear Meshuggah" going on on this one) and even a bit boring. The Axe's bittersweet melody among chaos also has its charm while Liquid Fire brings some Chaos AD and Cynic influences to the surface. The Wild Healer is a really soothing interlude and then Planned Obsolescence kicks in. This is by far the record's heavier track and could easily bee on one of the band's earlier records. The Gift Of Guilt's hypnotic tapping is simply beautiful and the way it meshes with the aggression of the verses flawless. Pain Is A Master is a bit of reprise of the album's opener and Born In Winter closes the album with its calmer yet somber charm progressing to a climax until it calms down again and waves us goodbye as it slowly fades.
L'Enfant Sauvage is one of those pivotal albums. Shows a band with a strong blueprint, a unique approach, with songs and passages so distinct from each other and yet so well harmonized that, taking in account the overall lack of taste and "give me the same old stuff" mindset of the majority it's a amazing, well deserved and cheerful fact it got the huge recognition and reception it had. That being said, sorry Magnus: I really wanted to vote for Thorns but it seems your nominations (and mine!) keep bumping into really strong contenders. Gojira's my pick.

Then we've got an enjoyable Virgin Steele record going against a really interesting Blaze album (and a really heavy one for its genre). Cuts like the title track, Smile Back At Death, Robot and The Truth Is One are full of hooks while keeping the riffage at maximum weight mingled with lots of melody, lending a trait or two from genres like Melodic Death or Thrash/Groove Metal while calmer songs like At The End Of The Day also work good enough. To raise the album's quality to an even higher level, Blaze's voice by now was in much better form when compared to his Maiden years or even his first releases. To sum it up The Man Who Would Not Die, while not reinventing the wheel still brings a couple of different flavors and surely is a powerful, well composed and tough as nails metal record. So... yeah: Blaze Bailey.

Marching Out is one of Yngwie's best records... period. And a really influential one also to a various metal genres (even the Gothenburg Scene). Make no mistake: while featuring lots of the so called "virtuoso guitar wankery" (if you want to call that to YM's revolutionary approach to metal guitar) there's also a strong song oriented focus here. I'm not a Malmsteen fan but songs like Disciples Of Hell with its vicious throttle, the chugging of I'm A Viking or the fast paced more traditional heavy metal prone tracks like the opener, Caught In The Middle or Anguish and fear are proof that this record is waaaaaaaaay more than an excuse for Yngwie Malmsteen to jerk off arpeggios for 45 mins but instead a fairly well composed and truly acutely executed metal album that (like it or not) will always have its place in history and in the top most influential records in countless metal acts. But nonetheless Tales is just that and a tad bit more, as I stated before: a really well crafted record that helped to establish a musical genre and transpires quality making me go with Blind Guardian.

Ah! Motorhead! Always good to have them. Orgasmatron really is an album that adds some different hues to these vet's catalogue while also repeating lots of the formula the iconic British band invented. Deaf Forever is based on a chugging heavy as hell AC/DC on steroids base and its simplicity, out of this world balance, and anthemic chorus renders it a really amazing opener. Plus one can notice right away the guitar and bass on this thing sound really dirty and heavy... and I like it a lot! Then we're offered a Motorhead generic uptempo followed by an equally generic punk rocker metal that while not being bad songs per se are quite forgettable since the band already explored that formula with much better results in the past. Claw's double kick makes the adrenaline pump a bit more but in fairness sounds like a 2nd class rehash of Overkill. Mean Machine on the other hand is a really NWOBHM meets punk outburst of power and a really cool cut. And then after another two more boring rockers and the interesting punk rock clad Ridin' With The Driver the title track closes the whole damn thing and man... what a way to close it! To put it simple Orgasmatron is my favorite song by Lemmy and company and taking in account the number of brutal stuff these guys released during the late 70's/ early 80's that says a lot. This thing is HEAVY... so heavy that it would fit 100% fine in something as heavy as Celtic Frost's To Megatherion even regarding its apocalyptic lyrics. While being quite simple this song's crushing groove is masterfully well built and if you don't feel the urge to bang your head to this there's something really wrong with you. So overall a really uneven album: same old rice with beans mingled with some wild heavy cuts and a monster of a title track. Overall it's an enjoyable record but falls short when compared with such a perfectly crafted and influential record in The Real Thing. So, once again, my vote goes to Faith No More.
 
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I find Thorns to be a little more engaging musically, and Gojira to be a little more engaging vocally, but neither are my cup of tea. All the same, I enjoyed Thorns a little bit more.
I don't think I like The Man Who Would Not Die as much as some others, but Blaze over Virgin Steele.
I enjoyed Yngwie, I really did, and I think his music is going to end up getting listened to again. But Blind Guardian is one of my favourite bands, even a lesser album of the same.
Motörhead over FNM.
 
Gojira in an easy decision over Thorns.

Blaze is also an easy decision over Virgin Steele. While not his best album, TMWWND is still quite strong, and you can also put me in the "grown tired of Virgin Steele" camp.

The third match was a little more difficult. I enjoyed the Yngwie album quite a bit, but in the end I still gotta go with Blind Guardian.

The best songs on The Real Thing are better than anything on Orgasmatron, but I'm going to give the vote to the Motörhead album for being much more consistent.
 
I’m surprised about the votes for Thorns. It sounds like something only Magnus would listen to. Perhaps the other voters are just anti-Gojira.

An interesting bit of memory came back to me thanks to Thorns. When I was younger, I used to imagine songs in my head, arrangements for a full band that never materialised into real songs but they existed in my head. I would sketch cover arts for the albums, write down the tracklists and even come up with durations for the songs. One of those imaginary bands of mine made music that is very similar in style to Thorns. Something fast, extreme and sort of industrial. The name of this band was Animal Parade, which I think is a dope name even today.
 
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